The present invention relates to prototyping and particularly to mask tooling for multi-project wafer (MPW) service integrating multiple design projects into a single mask using a network-based system.
In Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturing, at least one engineering lot is needed for IC design verification. A conventional engineering lot normally contains 6-12 wafers corresponding to one IC design. While thousands of dies are produced from an engineering lot, the number of dies is far beyond actual needs for IC design verification. When the IC design is verified, the dies are directly released to market. When the IC design fails in verification, the dies are scrapped, creating substantial waste.
Therefore, MPW service has emerged to reduce the cost of IC device prototyping. With MPW, several products can be integrated into a mask set, thus the cost of mask is reduced. Currently, MPW service is provided for different processes, such as 0.13 μm and 0.18 μm processes, and so on.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional MPW service. Design information 110 specifies multiple design projects for a MPW, comprising design projects 111, 113, 115, and 117. The design information 110 is then converted to mask tooling information. A mask 120 is then fabricated according to the mask tooling information, and used to manufacture a multi-project wafer 130 accordingly. The mask 120 comprises 4 kinds of IC device defined by design projects 111, 113, 115, and 117, respectively, which are then fabricated to form products 141, 143, 145, and 147, respectively.
FIG. 2 illustrates operation of a conventional MPW service. First, design projects for different IC devices are provided. The design information comprises Government Data Standards (GDS) II data, Mask Tooling (MT) information, and a Design Rule Check (DRC) report. Design projects 211, 213, 215, and 217 are provided by IC designers 201, 203, 205, and 207, respectively. Design projects 211, 213, 215, and 217 are sent to a design service provider 230. The design service provider 230 receives the design projects 211, 213, 215, and 217, and integrates them to generate integrated mask tooling information 231 for a single mask accordingly. The integrated mask tooling information is then transmitted to a mask house 250. The design projects are presented on the same mask set with proper allocation. FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional form for mask tooling information. The form leaves blanks for mask tooling information. Information is determined freely by users, and entered manually, conforming to different formats for different users, whereby the contents thereof may contains errors.
Although conventional MPW service efficiently reduces costs of IC device prototyping, it still presents several disadvantages. These disadvantages can be better understood referring to FIG. 2 and corresponding descriptions.
First, it is difficult for a design service provider to incorporate design information for different devices from different IC designers. The design information is generally provided by different IC designers in different ways and in different formats. Additionally, the design information may be provided through oral information, paper data, fax data or e-mail attachment files. Different IC designers provide different descriptions for design information, some of which may be insufficient or redundant. Furthermore, inconsistent formatting can cause even more difficulties in integrating mask tooling information. Therefore, conventional multi-project wafer service encounters problems in tape-out processes for design service providers.
Second, it is difficult for a mask house, such as mask house 250, to produce a multi-project wafer on behalf of a design service provider, such as design service provider 230, according to the operation of conventional multi-project wafer service. Mask house is suffered by the poor data quality from design service provider. Maybe there is different definition on masks information between design service provider and mask house. On the other hand, the design service provider didn't have enough knowledge on integration of different devices from different customers. If someone (like foundry player) has enough experience on MPW integration, maybe he can help the design service provider to perform the integration service.
Hence, there is a need for a MPW service system that addresses problems arising from the existing technology. And it can open to different design service provider to use it and maintain the good data quality on information integration, just like the expert did.